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Emma Donoghue's newest novel The Wonder, released on Tuesday

At “home” at the Black Walnut Cafe in Wortley Village, London author Emma Donoghue says that despite her recent red-carpet success, she has no plans to move to Hollywood. (CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)

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London author’s newest novel inspired by true tales of ‘fasting girls’ living without food

It’s clear Emma Donoghue likes writing about small spaces and living in small places.

That’s good news for fans and neighbours of the award-winning, Irish-Canadian author who calls London’s Wortley Village in Old South home.

Her newest novel, The Wonder, being released today, continues the tradition of characters in confined spaces found in her hit novel Room and her 1997 play Trespasses.

In this book, the central character, nurse Elizabeth (Lib) Wright, spends most of her time in a small bedroom watching over Anna O’Donnell, a young girl who has ignited a sensation in her native Ireland because she allegedly lives without food.

Wright, trained by Florence Nightingale, is a British nurse hired by a committee in the small town to watch over Anna and prove or disprove the fasting girl is a miracle.

“I do like confinement,” said Donoghue sipping a latte at the Black Walnut Bakery Cafe in Wortley Village.

“I just can’t write those novels that span continents. I think confinement helps in the shaping of stories and to make the reader feel that tension. And I like limiting the point of view in the story to one or two characters.”

Donoghue appeared relaxed and happy after a whirlwind year of rubbing shoulders with Hollywood royalty after Room, the movie based on her book, earned dozens of awards and nominations around the world, including best adapted screenplay for Donoghue.

Room tells of a woman, abducted as a teen, and her son, Jack, fathered by her abductor and rapist, and held captive in a shed for years before escaping. That story was inspired by the real-life case of Austrian kidnapper Joseph Fritzl.

Likewise, The Wonder was inspired by real-life stories Donoghue came across during some research that told about so-called “fasting girls” who claimed to be able to survive without food.

“I read widely in social history and keep an eye out for interesting stories,” said Donoghue.

“If I smell a story, I tend to do a bit of research. I first encountered the fasting girls about 20 years ago and it was always on my mind.”

In her research, Donoghue found several cases “very often with strong connections to religion, but not always. Some were just desperate for fame.”

The Wonder is set in 1859 where the Catholic church plays a near suffocating role in the daily lives of the people, just a few years removed from the Great Famine, also known outside Ireland as the Potato Famine of 1845-’52 when potato crops failed due to a disease, leading to the starvation deaths of an estimated one million people and the emigration of an equal number to other countries.

The O’Donnell family survived the famine, but lost a son several months earlier to stomach troubles. It was not long after his death that Anna stopped eating.

“The spiritual life can have all sorts of uplifting results, especially for Anna’s family,” said Donoghue, who will be speaking at Words, London’s Literary and Creative Arts Festival at Museum London Nov. 5.

“It would give hope that there’s a better life after death. . . . I was very interested in looking at how children can get caught up in a very rigid, fundamentalist religion and get persuaded to do appalling things, to fall into bad causes . . . (and) any system of rules that becomes a cage.”

The mid-1800s are an interesting time, said Donoghue, because “50 years earlier, there was no psychiatry around and 20 years later, Anna would be diagnosed as having anorexia nervosa.”

“Today, the cause is usually body image. Back then (in the 1800s) it was a statement to say ‘I’m delicate, refined and spiritual.’ It was less about the shape of the body and more about refinement and purity.”

The book is also set in the same year Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution On the Origin of Species was published, challenging the church’s view of creationism. People had begun to question their faith.

Although raised a Catholic, Donoghue said a lot of the details in the book related to faith “were very strange to me” such as referring to a priest as Mister rather than Father.

Other characters in The Wonder include Anna’s parents Rosaleen and Malachy, cousin Kitty, Sister Michael, a nun helping with the 24-hour watch, priest Mr. Thaddeus, Dr. McBrearty and journalist William Byrne.

“This book really means a lot to me because it’s all about the relationship between an adult and a child and because it’s a return to Ireland,” said Donoghue, who moved to Canada in 1998 with partner Chris Roulston, a Western University professor she met while studying at Cambridge. They have two children, Finn, 12, and Una, 9.

Donoghue said she enjoyed the experience of making a movie, but was surprised by Room’s success. Although critically acclaimed, Room was no blockbuster at the box office, earning an estimated $35.4 million worldwide on a $13 million budget to date.

Room was nominated for four Academy Awards for best director for fellow Irishman Lenny Abrahamson, best picture, best adapted screenplay for Donoghue and best actress for Brie Larson, which she won.

Looking back on the award season and Room, Donoghue offered “how improbable it all was.”

“For a first film, you really don’t expect that much success,” she said. “There was no big movie studio behind it, no big stars, it was a dark story, not an easy one to watch, so I look back and laugh with delight having gotten away with it.”

Before the film was released, Donoghue and family were living in Nice, France, where Roulston was on sabbatical doing research.

Although it was a busy time, Donoghue said she enjoyed most of the glitz and glamour, although admitting she wasn’t overly comfortable meeting the fashion and glamour expectations. She was often required to attend several parties a night.

“But I enjoyed it all,” said Donoghue. “It was great fun and I had a chance to meet some people who I’ve admired.”

Donoghue was born in Dublin and is the youngest of eight children of Frances and literary critic Denis Donoghue. She graduated with an arts degree from University College Dublin and earned a doctorate in English at Girton College, Cambridge.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Donoghue was teaming with UK-based Monumental Pictures to make a feature adaptation of her eighth novel Frog Music, a New York Times bestseller.

Donoghue is still working on that screenplay, a story set in San Francisco in the 1870s where there’s a heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. The story focuses on the unsolved, real-life murder of a young woman, Jenny Bonnet and the efforts of her friend, a burlesque dancer, to bring the murderer to justice.

She also has a children’s book coming out in March, which her children “are quite excited about because I harvested a lot of their conversations for the characters.”

With all the fame that comes with the success of her books, the film and the awards, Donoghue said her world returned to normal ”in April when I was still in France but I was back wearing yoga pants and writing again.”

She said she’s glad to be back home in Wortley Village and “writing . . . whenever the kids are out of the house.”

It’s clear she’s most comfortable in her Canadian environment.

“My friends and neighbours have asked if I’m moving to Hollywood,” said Donoghue.